Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 176: Tattoos
Uriel felt many things rapidly happen to him.
So rapidly that he could barely react, not that he was trying to.
WHOOOSH!
Upon his back, he already had one tattoo; the serpent biting its own tail, the Ouroboros.
There were two of them, overlapping one another.
It sat in the perfect middle of his spine, its beauty untold as it stretched across his jade-white skin, its ink in lustrous shades of ivory and rose gold for one, and deep shades of somber onyx and bright amethyst for the other.
To Uriel, the tattoo represented Ophanis and the contract he’d signed with her to save his life while facing the Sacred Eye of Lies.
But perhaps it was more.
SIH! SIH! SIH!
The sound was akin to a dip pen furiously etching ink across thick, ancient paper.
Below the tattoo of the twin Ouroboros, in the lower center of his back, a new tattoo rapidly took shape in shades of rose red and sand grey.
The tattoo was that of a lotus, with a seemingly never-ending number of rose-red petals, each holding a distinct rune and each seemingly containing an infinite number of worlds.
The lotus tattoo shook, and from it vine-like tattoos slithered up his skin, connecting with the twin Ouroboros.
The Ouroboros Marks didn’t change much, easily accepting the connection, but one key difference bloomed; each scale of the twin serpents gained a rune, and each gained the illusory reflection of endless worlds.
HUM!
A hum echoed, and the lotus tattoo seemed to be finished, losing part of its spark and bright allure to seamlessly settle onto his figure.
Very few would be able to notice either marking.
’My abode mark...’
Uriel couldn’t see much due to the golden fog, but he wasn’t worried in the least.
He was curious, though.
’Oh. The House is binding itself to my abode mark...’ a thought flickered across his mind.
He remembered Ayah saying that to gain her house, a beautiful and strange construct connected to her abode mark, she had used a hard-to-obtain item.
’I wonder what type of item she received to gain her house.’ he thought with a tinge of bitter jealousy.
Why did she get the beautiful and expansive warm abode while he got the old, needlessly large and dilapidated tower?!
’Whatever.’
SHAH!
The golden fog cleared, and Uriel found himself where he had previously been, with nothing much having changed.
The only difference was that now he felt connected to the Spiral House, the same connection he had with his dimensional space.
It truly had become his own.
[Welcome, Master Ciel!]
The notification echoed in his mind just as Mariah appeared in front of him.
He looked at her, and she looked at him. She flashed a radiant smile, then politely bowed.
"Congratulations, Uriel!" She straightened, stepping closer before squatting in front of him. "You became the House’s master!"
He smiled and nodded.
"I didn’t think undoing the puzzle and forming the key would cause this."
He threw her a curious glance.
"You almost seem happier than I am."
She nodded shamelessly. "I am."
"Normally, undoing the puzzle doesn’t grant ownership of the House. Normally, nothing can."
"Only those able to wield the Spiral Arts can even dare attempt to conquer the House and bind it to their Marks."
"But you not only comprehended the Spiral Arts on your own and from the mere structure of the puzzle, you also entirely mastered its basic layers."
"That’s unseen!"
He hummed as he caressed his hairless chin.
"Hm, I see."
"So what was the actual puzzle about? I don’t really understand what else it could’ve been if not that."
"Am I missing something?"
She shook her head.
"No. Well, technically you are, but only relatively."
"To undo the puzzle, normally for your specific trial type, you’d have to simply break the cube, which you’d do by either learning Mental Resonance-type attacks or by simply applying one to yourself."
"But then, from the shards of the broken cube, you’d have to read the runes and form a code. That code would lead you to learning a lesser battle art."
"And upon learning that battle art, the tower would recognise your deeds and set you up against a puppet where you’d only be allowed to use that art."
"If you win, you gain access to the house."
Uriel’s face twisted slightly as he heard this, and he let out a sharp whistle.
"By the gods, that sounds a million times harder than what I had to do. I’m guessing the battle art, whatever it is, is closely linked to the cycle happening in the desert?"
"I’d have to learn it by understanding it?"
She nodded, and he shook his head.
’Thank goodness I missed out on that.’
He refocused.
"Alright. Now that I am the owner of the house, is there anything I must know? Anything you want to tell me?"
"Also, it said I became a Spiral Candidate and that I gained a Spiral Tower and a Spiral House. Where is the tower coming from, and what is a Candidate?"
"Why is the House named Shackled Heart and—"
Mariah raised a hand, clearly overwhelmed, and Uriel paused.
He awkwardly laughed. "Sorry."
Mariah rose to her feet. "No, you’re right to be so curious."
"Follow me."
...
They took the stairs and started going down.
It lasted hours.
Eventually, they reached the lowest floor Uriel had ever been to, the one perfectly level with the desert floor.
Compared to the other floors, this one was rather large, so much so that it was reminiscent of the Emporium’s entry halls, with the main difference being the horrid wooden floors and the boring stone walls.
And at the center, there lay a floating platform of black stone.
"Where are we going?"
Mariah led the way toward the platform, and they stepped onto it.
In her hands, a stone tablet covered in runes appeared, upon which she rapidly began to type.
SIH!
A dome of energy suddenly enveloped them, trapping them on the platform. The platform suddenly shook and—
"We’re going to the deepest floor."
—they teleported away.
They vanished as if they had never been there.
